Barrichello Delighted after 'Unbelievable' Win

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was delighted after leading teammate Michael Schumacher to a runaway one-two win before a red sea of Ferrari fans in their home Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.

An afternoon that had promised to belong to Williams and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya turned into another day of Ferrari domination as Barrichello crossed the line 0.2 of a second ahead of Schumacher for his third win of the season.

A tide of flag waving, flare-brandishing fans flooded the pit straight to acclaim their heroes and pay tribute in a season that has seen 13 Ferrari wins in 15 races. Barrichello, who scored his third win of 2002, could hardly believe the view from the podium.

"It was such a feeling," said Barrichello of his reception on the podium. "I don't think we're ever going to experience something like that again. We were seeing people coming in, it was just unbelievable. As far as my eyes could go I saw only people, it was amazing.

"I must thank everyone, especially the test team today because we were here last week and we were able to really chose the right tyres and Bridgestone did a fantastic job to bring the right tyres. I have no words for them because it was really the tyre to have. It was unbelievable."

Everything went according to plan for Ferrari, celebrating their fourth constructors' title in a row and Schumacher's record-equalling fifth drivers' crown before their home supporters. Schumacher was also able to add the all-time points scoring record to his season's achievements, breaking his own record of 122 to take his tally to 128.

Ferrari have now also finished the last 51 races on the podium and Schumacher, winner of a record 10 races, has now run up 17 podiums in succession. They have also chalked up seven one-two finishes in 2002.

"I did enjoy it because this was the ideal result we dreamed of," said the German of the race. "I didn't want to go that far and wish myself such a result because we've had so much luck this year and so many good results that I thought whatever comes is going to be fine but this is obviously a dream result.

"If you, as we said before, look out from the podium, it's all the way down the straight and this is by far the longest straight, you see full of people, full of the tifosi and that's an amazing emotion that went through me and Rubens. We can only thank our guys out there who support us and hopefully we gave something back today."